The plight of El Salvador

The rain keeps falling.  The tears do, too.  For more than a week now, there hasn't been a dry moment.  The ones we have come to love after living with them for the past two months are telling us, "We are hungry, we are cold, we are wet, we are tired, we have run out of water and are boiling the rain to survive."

But we cannot join them.  Our communities are out of reach, if not physically, "programmatically" (a term frequently used to justify the limits and rules of the Casa program).  A major bridge collapsed this weekend, cutting off access to the western provinces from San Salvador.

More than 1,250 mm (over four feet) of rain have accumulated in the past week.  The earth has been totally saturated, leaving every drop as runoff.  The news resembles Katrina-era New Orleans: men wading through chest-high waters, hundreds waiting in lines in the wind and the rain for a food and water, the shelters shutting down from lack of funding and thousands pouring into the national football stadium.

They need food, water, hygiene products, sheet plastic.  Here, we are trying to do the most we can, but there feels like there is so much more we could do.  We are bringing food and dry clothes and blankets to those who need it, but there is so much need.  Over 30,000 people have been evacuated, more than two thirds now seeking refuge in makeshift shelters.  It feels like the most we can do is love, pray.

It is difficult acknowledging how little attention the United States has given, both in media coverage and foreign aid.  Sunday, the Salvadoran government declared a state of national emergency calling for domestic and foreign aid.  The U.S. has so far given $50,000.  Taiwan, $300,000.  More painful still is that the pain and suffering of this country has been caused by past U.S. policies, from providing the oppressive military with $6 billion during the 12 year civil war to the effects CAFTA has had in the past 15 years and the financial and social devastation of migration policies today.

Our Own Backyard.  A phrase used forever to describe Central America for more than half a century.  That is where the rain is falling; for me, obviously quite literally, but for the U.S. government, for the Jesuit universities, in a moral sense.  Since the 1989 massacre of the Jesuits at the Universidad Centroamericana (where I am going to class), El Salvador has become ever more a brother we need to protect.  Just as Boston College lifted up the St. Columbkille parish community when it needed help, so too must we answer the plea of our neighbour El Salvador.

Along with the state of emergency on Sunday, the Casa de la Solidaridad, the UCA, and the country as a whole suffered even more.  Father Dean Brackley the Jesuit from Fordham University who came to El Salvador over twenty years ago to help fill the responsibilities left behind by the six martyred Jesuits, both academically and spiritually—passed away after a courageous battle with cancer.  As a dear friend, Lupita, told me his life was a lemon that he squeezed until there was nothing left, and when it seemed like there couldn't possibly be more to give, he gave zest.

And now, at noon on Tuesday, the sun has broken through the clouds.  Finally, I hear in the hearts of those surrounding me.  But just as when the hurricane left New Orleans, outstanding damage remains.  The rainy season is not quite over and any rain that may fall in the next hours, days will add to the catastrophe.  The death toll yesterday was 32 people.  Twenty-two roads and highways were washed out or collapsed.  The borders with Guatemala were destroyed.  Over 30,000 people—the equivalent to almost a million and a half Americans, in comparison—are displaced.  Little international help or attention is coming in.  There is an immeasurable amount of work to be done.  I ask for your support.  Love, thoughts, prayers if that is all you can provide.  If you, or your place of work or study can give financially, it would be so greatly appreciated.  Donations can be made right now via http://ceibaelsalvador.org/ (an organization affiliated with the Casa de la Solid! aridad).  For more information, please check our local newspapers: La Prensa Grafica, El Diario de Hoy, Co-Latino.

Anthony Ford

A&S '13